Posted on 07/14/2015 11:03:30 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Guess which ObamaCare case will be headed to the Supreme Court next? At least, that’s the option open for the Little Sisters of the Poor and their defense team at The Becket Fund for the restoration of a temporary injunction against compliance with the HHS mandate. The 10th Circuit handed the nuns a defeat this morning, vacating the earlier temporary injunction ordered by a lower court:
Moments ago, in a departure from the U.S. Supreme Court’s protection of the Little Sisters of the Poorlast year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit ruled that the Little Sisters must comply with the government’s HHS mandate. This mandate forces religious ministries to violate their faith or pay massive IRS penalties …
The Tenth Circuit heard oral argument in this case December of last year, when for the first time since the case began, Sr. Loraine Marie Maguire, Mother Provincial of the Little Sisters of the Poor, delivered a public statement on the case (see statement here).
Today the Tenth Circuit ruled that government can force the Little Sisters to either violate their faith or pay massive IRS penalties. The court held that participating in the government’s contraception delivery scheme is “as easy as obtaining a parade permit, filing a simple tax for, or registering to vote” and that although the Sisters sincerely believe that participating in the scheme “make[s] them complicit in the overall delivery scheme,” the court “ultimately rejects the merits of this claim,” because the court believes the scheme relieves [the Little Sisters] from complicity.”
The Little Sisters and their attorneys are closely reviewing the court’s decision and will decide soon whether they must seek relief from the Supreme Court.
“We will keep on fighting for the Little Sisters, even if that means having to go all the way to the Supreme Court,” said Daniel Blomberg, Counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty.
The Court’s order similarly harms Christian Brothers Services and Christian Brothers Employee Benefit Trust, the Catholic ministries through which the Little Sisters obtain their health coverage.
This means that the Little Sisters of the Poor will be forced to comply with the mandate or face ruinous penalties, even while appealing their denial of religious exemption by HHS. The idea that Catholic nuns are somehow required to provide contraception through their insurer to their employees — who had to know that Catholic nuns would be the last group one would ask for contraception — demonstrates just how ridiculous this mandate is.
The decision, which is very lengthy, was unanimous on the issues for the LSP nuns. The sole dissent in part addresses the way this decision broadly addresses the impact on self-insuring non-profits:
Today the Court holds, among other things, that the ACA contraceptive Mandate’s accommodation scheme does not substantially burden religious non-profits that object to facilitating contraceptive or abortifacient coverage because opting out does not cause, authorize, or otherwise facilitate such coverage.1 The Court’s opinion provides perhaps the most thorough explanation of the accommodation scheme’s nuanced mechanics that I have yet read. And for argument’s sake, I follow its holding as to the insured plaintiffs’ and Little Sisters plaintiffs’ RFRA claims.2 But I cannot join the Court’s holding as to the other self-insured plaintiffs’ RFRA claims, as that holding contradicts the Court’s own reasoning and thorough explanation of the accommodation scheme.
In reality, the accommodation scheme forces the self-insured plaintiffs to perform an act that causes their beneficiaries to receive religiously objected-to coverage. The fines the government uses to compel this act thus impose a substantial burden on the selfinsured plaintiffs’ religious exercise. Moreover, less restrictive means exist to achieve the government’s contraceptive coverage goals here. I must therefore dissent in part.
The difference demonstrates a well-known weakness in the LSP case, which is how their insurance was structured. The LSP organization has less direct control over its insurance thanks to its use of a kind of co-op, and that was apparently enough for the 10th Circuit to rule that compliance with the HHS accommodation does not actually facilitate the use of contraceptives. Politically, this case is embarrassing for the Obama administration, but HHS has a somewhat stronger case here than with other religious organizations.
The Becket Fund had success in getting the Supreme Court to order a temporary injunction for LSP under the previous accommodation. It appears that they’ll have to try that path again to keep the nuns on the job providing hospice care as part of their exercise of religious liberty.
Coming soon: St. Peter’s Cathedral and Abortion Factory.
Hitlerian, at best.
“Today the Tenth Circuit ruled that government can force the Little Sisters to either violate their faith or pay massive IRS penalties.”
When they came for the Little Sisters, I didn’t speak up because I was not a Little Sister.
Then, they came for me...
You know the drill. What deprives ONE of us of our religious FREEDOM, deprives ALL of us.
How I loathe the days we’re living through!
How do they distigush the Hobby Lobby decision? Just wrong?
Thanks Robers for not killing ObmamaCare when you had the chance.
Now we have The 10th Circus.
Godless and heartless tyrants in black robes!
Obviously the 10th circus does not understand the clear wording and intent of the First Amendment. Black-robed tyrants! This country is done for.
And the Sexual Deviant ruling the other day isn’t going to impact religious freedom? Right.
I hope Obama and the 10th Circuit justices all end their days in the care of the Little Sisters.
Highly unlikely, but they could do a lot worse and probably will.
Is there anyone with even a semblance of intelligence who doesn’t realize that nuns consider abortion a sin?
>“Today the Tenth Circuit ruled that government can force the Little Sisters to either violate their faith or pay massive IRS penalties.”
When they came for the Little Sisters, I didn’t speak up because I was not a Little Sister.
Then, they came for me...
You know the drill. What deprives ONE of us of our religious FREEDOM, deprives ALL of us.
How I loathe the days we’re living through!<
Post this on the “religious forum” you’ll find many who will disagree and even celebrate anything that hurts Catholics. They don’t have the foresight to see as you’ve stated.
The sisters have no assets. The government will not be able to take any money from them.
Or will the government take their home and throw them out into the street?
In brief, from the court's decision ...
Last year, the Supreme Court decided Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., 134 S. Ct. 2751 (2014), in which closely-held for-profit corporations challenged the Mandate under RFRA. The difference between Hobby Lobby and this case is significant and frames the issue here. In Hobby Lobby, the plaintiff for-profit corporations objected on religious grounds to providing contraceptive coverage and could choose only between (1) complying with the ACA by providing the coverage or (2) not complying and paying significant penalties. Id. at 2759-60. In the cases before us, the plaintiff religious non- profit organizations can avail themselves of an accommodation that allows them to opt out of providing contraceptive coverage without penalty. Plaintiffs contend the process to opt out substantially burdens their religious exercise.In other words, unlike in Hobby Lobby, the Plaintiffs do not challenge the general obligation under the ACA to provide contraceptive coverage. They instead challenge the process they must follow to get out of complying with that obligation.
The LSOTP are right down the street from me. Literally.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a member that was younger than 80. Even the “bad” nuns are not going to find themselves in need of contraception in that place.
This is simply stupid.
"All the ages down some men have superciliously declared, 'The days of religion are numbered.' But her sacred books outlast the critics. Resting her hand upon the Bible, the Church can say, 'Here is an anvil that has worn out many a hammer.'" - Bishop William Hobart Hare - Niobrara Convocation Address, 1899
Bishop Hare, in addition to his work with the American Indians, ministered to the Japanese and Chinese in later years.
The following passage comes from "The Life and Labors of Bishop Hare" - 1912 relating remarks delivered at Trinity Church, Tokio (sic).
"A single passage from his address to them which in general was more a report than a sermon is all that need be quoted:Matthew 7:24-27 - NLT'I would urge upon all who are called upon in any capacity to teach religion to the people, that they keep carefully to those salient points in the broad lines of Christian truths of which it may be said that they are Catholic, that they have been held 'always, everywhere and by all.' We are here not of our own motion but of the Church's appointment, and we are commissioned to teach, not our own peculiar views of the things to be believed, and the things to be done, but what the Church teaches. This body, of truth is presented to us in the Creed, the Lord's Prayer and the Ten Commandments, and in the striking summaries and paraphrases of them which our short Catechism contains. They contain truths so compact and terse in statement, that, as the intelligent teacher, familiar with the Scriptures, dwells on them, texts and incidents, impressive, pathetic, tender, from the His- torical Books, the Prophets, the Psalms, Gospels, Epistles, rise up in the memory and leap forward ready to expand, illustrate and enforce them. I fear these treasures are not adequately appre ciated. Religious emotions are of high value, but they rise and fall. They are not perennial.
'Religious opinions rise up and flourish in each age, in individuals and little coteries, and are like the passing highly-colored cloud. They attract attention and pass away. But the great truths taught in the formulas just referred to are not dependent upon emotion. They are not matters of opinion. They are seed truth. They are capable of perpetual germination. Once lodged in the mind, they 'spring and grow up and bring forth fruit, we know not how,' even though they be long inactive and apparently dead, and from their renewed life, holy emotions and pious opinions and right living result almost as a mat ter of course.'" - Bishop William Hobart Hare
24 “Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. 25 Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock. 26 But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. 27 When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash.”
Ignore the court.
All three branches of the government are a Three-Ring Circus. It’s time to look at a thorough cleaning and I do mean thorough!
The Tenth Circuit Court can expect a severe lightning strike the next time they are in session.
Count on it! Pray for it!
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